Two British-born Islamic extremists used a laptop to hold 'silent conversations' about a terror attack on soldiers and grieving families as the war dead were returned through the town of Royal Wootton Bassett, the Old Bailey heard

Richard Dart and Imran Mahmood tried to avoid surveillance by typing into a Word document on a laptop rather than speaking aloud, prosecutors claim.

Dart, 30, who is originally from Dorset and is the son of teachers, was trying to get advice from Mahmood about getting terrorist training in Pakistan.

'Radical': Richard Dart was jailed for six years for engaging in conduct in preparation of acts of terrorism

Suspicion: British soldiers and Marines killed in Afghanistan pass along the High Street in Wootton Bassett, where the terror group was believed to be targeting

Co-conspirators: Former PCSO Jahangir Alom (left) and Imran Mahmood (right) also pleaded guilty at the Old bailey last month

He, Mahmood and co-defendant Jahangir Alom all admitted engaging in conduct in preparation of acts of terrorism last month.

On Wednesday the sentencing process, which could take until Thursday, began at the Old Bailey.

Prosecutor Jonathan Laidlaw QC told
the court: 'The method employed as the police, with the help of computer
experts, would subsequently discover, involved Dart and Mahmood sitting
together at a computer and opening a Word document on the computer to
conduct what in effect was a silent conversation.

'Having had that discussion by typing
into the document, the document was then deleted by one or other of the
defendants, without having been saved and as far as the defendants were
concerned the document would therefore be destroyed forever.

'They plainly were under the misapprehension that the text once deleted could never be recovered.'

The tactic suggested that they were aware that they might be under surveillance, the court heard.

Mr Laidlaw added: 'It is obvious,
suggest the prosecution, from the covert method of communication
employed that they were surveillance conscious and had received
anti-surveillance instruction or training.

'They knew that their activities were
likely to be of interest to the authorities and that ordinary
conversation within their homes may be recorded by listening devices.'

In the conversations, Dart asked
Mahmood about getting contacts with the Pakistan Taliban,
Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, which was banned in the UK in 2011.

The pair discussed how to make
explosives, and Mahmood made reference to military tribute town Wootton
Bassett as a potential target.

Extreme: Dart has made several appearances on YouTube and on BBC TV discussing his faith and his views, as well as attending several anti-British protests in London (right)

He went on: 'They’re all combatant so if it comes down to it, it’s that or even just to deal with a few MI5, MI6 heads.'

Alom had his own contact with a fourth
man, Mohammed Tariq Nasar, a Briton living in Pakistan, to try to get
terrorist training, it is claimed. Mr Nasar has not been charged with
any offence.

Prosecutors say that all three
defendants travelled to Pakistan for terrorist training, although Dart
and Alom were unsuccessful in that aim.

Admission: Richard Dart had travelled to Pakistan for terror training and was implicated after police seized a computer

Mahmood asked Dart to try to get a specific book detailing how to make explosives, the court heard.

In an apparent reference to travelling
to Pakistan with Alom, Dart said: 'Bro I’m going with wanted to do
something here but I said let’s abroad, can you try them out in the
mountains in Wales because you don’t want to go to all that effort and
it doesn’t work out.'

The fragments of conversation retrieved from the computer were from November 2011.

Early the following year, in February
2012, Dart and Mahmood met in person at a Subway restaurant in Ealing,
west London, and were overheard by surveillance teams talking about
areas where fighting was happening and the word 'beheading' was used.

Dart said: 'Things have to be done. It doesn’t matter even if you’re in this country or abroad, things have to be done.'

He went on: 'A lot of brothers are scared of going inside for it but I’m not. I don’t need brothers around me to study jihad'.

He added: 'The training that Dart and Alom sought and which Mahmood attempted to assist them acquire, would have taught Dart and Alom the skills and techniques necessary to commit acts of terrorism both abroad but also in the UK, although there is no evidence that any planning for an identifiable target had actually been carried out.'

In opening the sentencing hearing
against the trio Mr Laidlaw said both Dart and Alom had denied
targetting the UK in their basis of pleas which was not acceptable to
the prosecution.

He said: 'Dart’s assertion that he
did not intent to commit acts of terrorism a) involving the targetting
of civilians or loss of civilian lives or b) in the UK.

'As to the targetting of civilians,
armed combat in Afghanistan or Pakistan he would, suggests the
prosecution, plainly involve acts that may threaten the lives of
civilians. Indeed the TTP - the Taliban in Pakistan - are known to
deliberately launch attacks against the civilian population.

Stand: Dart pictured before his arrest during a Muslims against Crusades protest against the Royal Wedding

Home: Dart had lived in a luxury flat here in Mile End, East London, paid for by benefits

'Whilst Dart’s primary intention
appears to commit terrorist attacks abroad, he’s certainly not ruling
out the possibility of carrying out terrorist attacks in this country at
some future date.

'It would be wrong that sentencing
should be passed on the basis Dart and Alom did not intend to engage in
terrorist activities in this country.

'It would ignore the clear evidence in this case, that they contemplated of such an act in this country.'

The trio were arrested in July of
last year. They each pleaded guilty to one charge of engaging in conduct
in preparation for acts of terrorism between July 2010 and July 2012.

Last year the Dart, who has
changed his name to Salahuddin al Britani, featured in a BBC documentary
filmed by his own brother about his conversion to Islam.

During the film, called My Brother
the Islamist, Dart was seen protesting about British soldiers in
Afghanistan and calling them ‘murderers.’

The former BBC security guard also called for Sharia law to be established in Britain.

Alom’s wife Ruksana Begum, 22, of
Islington, has already been sentenced to a year after pleaded guilty to
possessing a the al Qaeda magazines Inspire.